Go ahead as normal. The executive of Together for Catalonia (Junts) has ended its debate on the convening of the party congress, finally agreeing to propose an ordinary party congress within the deadlines set by the political group's statutes. The congress should be held every two years, which would force it to be held this July, and the party's leadership, led by Jordi Sànchez, agreed on a proposal to hold the congress "as planned", following the internal debate opened in recent weeks on whether or not to postpone the summit due to the proximity of the municipal elections - due in spring 2003.
Junts yesterday held an extraordinary leadership meeting in Sallent and concluded "unanimously" to propose this calendar to the national council meeting to be held in the town of Alcarràs this Saturday. The calling of the congress had provoked intense debate in Junts in recent weeks, after the party leadership had pointed out the desirability of avoiding a contest for the leadership of the party not long before the election campaign for the municipal elections next year. In this regard, the possibility of postponing the congress until after the municipal elections or limiting the summit to an ideological debate was pointed out. The background to this debate is the internal tension around the party's leadership, and the rivalry between the current general secretary, Jordi Sànchez, and the vice-president Jordi Turull.
An ordinary congress
However, different groups in the party approved resolutions in recent days demanding that the timetable should be adhered to. Last Wednesday, the Penedès district approved a resolution calling for the congress to be held "as soon as possible" and the next day the Les Corts group in Barcelona made the same proposal. After these two, other groupings passed similar resolutions.
The Junts regulations state that the national congress must be held every two years. Given that the party was formed in July 2020, it would be sufficient to hold it this July. The regulations, however, do not specify whether this summit should be used to renew the direction. From there, the possibility of limiting the congress's scope was raised. However, in the end, the executive unanimously decided to hold the congress ordinarily, that is, also renewing the management, and to do so within the two year period provided for in the regulations.
Amendment of language policy law
The meeting of the Junts executive also served to analyze the reform of Catalonia's language policy law, as agreed by PSC, ERC, Junts and the Comuns in Parliament. The controversy that arose last week over that pact led Junts to back down and warn that it needed to be improved in order to achieve "the essential majority consensus" with the language-advocacy and cultural organizations and the educational community.
The speaker of parliament, Laura Borràs, who was one of those in charge of finalising that agreement, explained the reform to the executive together with the MPs Mònica Sales and Anna Erra. The executive has insisted on the need to improve that agreement, although sources in the party's leadership say that Junts is not against that pact nor is it committed to freezing it.